The
topic that I decided to do for this discussion was “Hearsay”. The definition of
hearsay is defined as information that is gathered by a person that was heard
from another person about an event of which the first person did not experience
the event directly. This type of evidence reminded me a lot of the game
telephone mainly because you start with one person saying something in another’s
person ear then they would repeat that to the next person and so on, but
usually when it gets to the end it’s a whole different sentence than what the
first person said. This is also what happens in hearsay evidence because when
one person repeats the story they tend to end up forgetting some minor details.
I don’t think this a real reliable source of evidence, this is why it’s not
really used in court cases because some witnesses may repeat the story, but may
accidentally leave out some minor details that could actually prove to be
significant in determining if someone is innocent or guilty.
I think hearsay is a really interesting topic because so many people use it like it was fact, especially when we’re younger. As I’ve gotten older I’ve become more committed to the things that I experience firsthand instead of relying on what I hear from other sources. But there are times when I found this difficult or impossible, for example just about anything I read about in the news is hearsay. I like your point that it is not allowed in court, which implies that it is not an adequate source of knowledge for us to know about the truth. This is makes it tough for me to know how I should treat stories I read about in the New York Times regarding things I have no other way of knowing about.
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